Mission

The Center's mission is to promote Catholic-Jewish dialogue, as set forth in a document promulgated by the Second Vatican Council's in 1965, Nostra Aetate (In Our Time) and seconded in many subsequent papal actions and declarations. As befits a Catholic institution of higher education, the Center's principal sphere is education. The lessons of the Holocaust are essential to educating future generations in order to fight prejudice, genocidal ideologies, apathy, and Holocaust denial. To this end, the Center's mission is to educate people about the Holocaust and its significance for the present. The primary audiences are the College community, the neighborhood, and teachers and future teachers in the surrounding area.

In furtherance of its mission, the Center sponsored workshops for teachers in the metropolitan area (1997-2002), and works closely with Manhattan College's School of Education to incorporate segments on the Holocaust in the curriculum and in specific courses. The Teacher Training Workshops have guided educators as to methods, contents, and materials for teaching the Holocaust and have enabled them to implement the laws in both New York and New Jersey mandating that the Holocaust be taught in all state schools.